The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire eBook

“My husband assures me that there is no immediate
danger, and when there is the least particle of danger
we will leave the place. There is an American
schooner, the R. F. Morse, in the harbor, and she will
remain here for at least two weeks. If the volcano
becomes very bad we shall embark at once and go out
to sea. The papers in this city are asking if
we are going to experience another earthquake similar
to that which struck here some fifty years ago.”

THE FATEFUL EIGHTH OF MAY

The writer of this letter and her husband, Consul
Prentis, trusted Mont Pelee too long. They perished,
with all the inhabitants of the city, in a deadly
flood of fire and ashes that descended on the devoted
place on the fateful morning of Thursday, May 8th.
Only for the few who were rescued from the ships in
the harbor there would be scarcely a living soul to
tell that dread story of ruin and death. The most
graphic accounts are those given by rescued officers
of the Roraima, one of the fleet of the Quebec Steamship
Co., trading with the West Indies. This vessel
had left the Island of Dominica for Martinique at midnight
of Wednesday, and reached St. Pierre about 7 o’clock
Thursday morning. The greatest difficulty was
experienced in getting into port, the air being thick
with falling ashes and the darkness intense. The
ship had to grope its way to the anchorage. Appalling
sounds were issuing from the mountain behind the town,
which was shrouded in darkness. The ashes were
falling thickly on the steamer’s deck, where
the passengers and others were gazing at the town,
some being engaged in photographing the scene.

The best way in which we can describe a scene of which
few lived to tell the story, is to give the narratives
of a number of the survivors. From their several
stories a coherent idea of the terrible scene can
be formed. From the various accounts given of
the terrible explosion by officers of the Roraima,
we select as a first example the following description
by Assistant Purser Thompson:

A TALE OF SUDDEN RUIN

“I saw St. Pierre destroyed. It was blotted
out by one great flash of fire. Nearly 40,000
persons were all killed at once. Out of eighteen
vessels lying in the roads only one, the British steamship
Roddam, escaped, and she, I hear, lost more than half
on board. It was a dying crew that took her out.

“Our boat, the Roraima, of the Quebec Line,
arrived at St. Pierre early Thursday morning.
For hours before we entered the roadstead we could
see flames and smoke rising from Mont Pelee.
No one on board had any idea of danger. Captain
G. T. Muggah was on the bridge, and all hands got on
deck to see the show.

“The spectacle was magnificent. As we approached
St. Pierre we could distinguish the rolling and leaping
of the red flames that belched from the mountain in
huge volumes and gushed high in to the sky. Enormous
clouds of black smoke hung over the volcano.